My Son's Stubborn First Tooth

I don't know if it started at one month or two, all I know is that by three months those cute bibs I had been using merely as an adorable, matching accessory all of a sudden became a soaked-with-saliva necessity. I switched them more often than I changed diapers.

So, of course at our four month check in, I mentioned it to my pediatrician.

"Um, my baby seems to drool. A lot. Is that normal?"

My doctor, a wizened grandfatherly father of five looked down at me kindly and patiently, more than used to new mom nerves. "Very. He's just teething."

Teething? My kid was four months. Babies didn't get teeth at four months, did they?

So for the next few weeks I watched and waited, rubbing my fingers around his gums obsessively, once running to my husband because I saw a bit of white. He pulled it out on his finger. Curdled milk.

"Oh! I feel it!" I exclaimed when he was five months. And six. And seven. And eight. But even though the bottom of his sweet face always shined with wet and I was never without my fashionable burp cloth resting over my shoulder, there were no teeth to speak of.

Still the drooling continued.

At my nine month checkup, I brought it up again and my pediatrician felt around his gums. "You're right," he smiled. "I don't feel any swelling. But don't worry. Really."

How could I not worry? All our baby friends had at least one tooth, if not more. Only my sweet boy was still all gums. Not that his kisses weren't worth the slobber or his baby face extra adorable without any chompers, but where were his teeth?

He was 10 months, then 11; walking and eating solid table foods. Apparently, it wasn't a problem. "Teeth are just for show at this age," my pediatrician said. "He can chew fine with his gums." (If this guy smiled at me one more time, I might knock his teeth out to see how well he'd do.)

At a year, my started talking. The words flew out pretty easily without all those teeth as obstacles.

When I went for our 14 month checkup, I finally let the crazy out. "My kid is 14 months old and has no teeth!" I exclaimed. "This can't be normal! And look at him, he could slip and fall on his own saliva! It's a health hazard!"

We both looked at his smiling gummy face, saliva pooled at the chin, dripping down to his ever present bib. "I promise," the doctor said. "He will not get married without teeth." Then he put an arm on my shoulder and led me to the door.

Oh thanks! That makes me feel so much better!

As you might expect, all my worrying was for naught. At 15 months it happened and I remember exactly the moment it arrived because it turned out to be a double milestone day -- first tooth, last nursing.

Alisa Schindler is a SAHM of three boys and wife to Mr. Baseball. In between schlepping to the ball fields and burning cupcakes, she chronicles the sweet and bittersweet of life in the suburbs on her popular blog, Icescreammama.com. Her essays have been featured on NYTMotherlode, Mamapedia.com, Scary Mommy and Erma Bombeck’s Writers Workshop, as well as in the book, Life Well Blogged and the upcoming Motherhood, May Cause Drowsiness. She has just completed a sexy romance novel and would really like you to read it.